Thursday, January 30, 2014

Here I am at my first art exhibition in Jacksonville, FL dated 1974. My studio at the time was a corner in my bedroom where I had an easel, a stool and small table with a paint box given to me by my Grandfather.

Above is a view of my studio from the entrance, I will include a portrait of a Veteran from each year since I started the Portraits of American Veterans Project in 2009 and is a significant part of my work and my life.
Full length image of my studio from the the view of the artworks on the easels.

Pulling artwork out of my studio storage in preparation for my upcoming solo show, "8 Years Beyond the Studio, A Retrospective" to be on view February 7-28, 2014 in the Sage Gallery here in the Lakeside Legacy Arts Park. February 2014 marks 8 years in my wonderful studio. I have produced an enormous amount of work and enjoyed the artists, staff and board members at the Lakeside. I am very excited about the opportunity to show my work as it has developed over the years. The artist reception will be on Friday, February 7 from 5:00- 8:00 p.m.

Sorting work and framing works on paper that have been stored in my flat file.

Press Release:

Jeanine
Hill-Soldner is an artist with over 30 years of exhibition experience.Working first in home based studios and then
four previous spaces outside the home in the past 19 years.She has been a Lakeside Legacy Arts Park
Resident Arts Partner for the past 8 years.These years have been astonishingly productive for her artistic
practice, with the creation of several large bodies of work and a major
collaborative community based project “Portraits of American Veterans
Project”.During the past few years the
Artist has exhibited her oil paintings and drawing in the commons areas and
hallways in the Arts Park, with the annual Art in Action event allowing her to
showcase her newest works.This has been
a time for tremendous professional as well as personal growth and maturity in
her work.The Artists large colorful
paintings can be viewed in her always changing studio exhibits and many solo
exhibits and group shows nationally.

During November of 2005 Jeanine Hill-Soldner installed
the first major exhibition in the newly minted exhibition space, the Sage
Gallery at Lakeside Legacy Arts Park.This first exhibition for the new gallery featured the Artist’s
groundbreaking large body of work “Memories of an Era, Reflections of Our
Time”.She was not yet a resident artist
in the Arts Park but she knew she was in on the ground floor of something that
would become a destination and anchor for artists and the community.Within a year after the exhibit Hill-Soldner
had to move from her studio in Algonquin and soon found the spacious garden
level studio.The time was right for a
new focus and she got right to work stretching canvas and creating new
paintings.She also began offering art
lessons and group classes for teens to adult ages.She also hosts group painting projects for
children to adults.At Lakeside she
found the best of both worlds of painting and teaching art in her space.

The past eight years have been eventful for the
artist.The final large painting for
“Memories of an Era” was completed and then exhibited in the Sage Gallery.The Executive Director of PBS Real Simple
Television contacted the Artist after reading a story about her in the
Northwest Herald.Within two weeks a PBS
film crew visited Hill-Soldner’s home, studio and then the Sage Gallery where
“Memories of an Era” was installed.The
Artist’s Profile first aired in July 2007 and continued to be featured on PBS
stations around the U.S. during the next few years.In 2008 CBS contacted the Artist requesting
her appearance for a short segment on the program “Wife Swap”.Always up for a new challenge she agreed and
within two days another film crew visited the Artist’s studio.

During the years Hill-Soldner has continually works on
new concepts for her work and in 2007 completed another large body of work
“Pilgrimage and Passages” which exhibit in a solo show in the Sage
Gallery.The paintings from this series
have exhibited extensively around the Chicago area.From November 2007- October 2008 the Artist’s
large body of work “Memories of an Era” exhibited at the National Veterans Art
Museum in Chicago.While deinstalling
her paintings she met the founders of the Vet Art Project in Chicago.She began her journey of collaborations with
veterans, artists, writers, actors and therapists working in teams while
creating new work about war.Her passion
for painting and memories of family experiences in the military culminated in
the founding of “Portraits of American Veterans Project”.The first four portraits from the project
exhibited in the Sage Gallery in 2008, followed by twenty one completed
portraits exhibiting in 2009.The
paintings have travelled to Chicago and Connecticut at the GE Corporate
Gallery.

Artist Jeanine Hill-Soldner will break new ground again
with “8 Years Beyond the Studio: aRetrospective” Exhibition in February.The exhibit will feature a chronological ordering of art and statements
revealing the progress the artist has made in her work during her time as a
resident artist at Lakeside Legacy Arts Park.

Bio:

Algonquin
resident Jeanine Hill-Soldner is an award winning nationally recognized artist
with more than 30 years of art exhibition and teaching experience.Born in Quantico, Virginia and raised in a
military family, she moved frequently and has traveled internationally all of
her life.The Artist’s grandfather gave
her a set of oil paints at age 12 and by the age of 15 she was accepted as a
student in the painting studio of Florida artist Lanier Densmore setting the
foundation for her lifelong passion for art.

She
specializes in oil painting, acrylics, and water media creating original works
on subjects from portraits and figures to landscapes, still life and mixed
conceptual works.She is creator of the
groundbreaking solo traveling exhibit “Memories of Era” and founder of the
seminal “Portraits of American Veterans Project.”The Artist’seducation includes a Masters of Art in Art
Education from the University of Illinois, and a Bachelors Degree in Art from
University of Florida.

Artist Statement:

“My passion for art grows every day, as I
discover depth and richness through the continuous evolution of my creative
process.From the idea in my mind’s eye,
to the final work of art, there is no end to what I can achieve with the
sensuous colors of paint, and the expressive quality of a line.I want to bridge the boundary between
representation and abstraction with light, color and dynamic
compositions.My art brings me closer to
the deepest and most sublime moments, revealing visual beauty of the people,
places, and events that shape our time.”

Sunday, January 19, 2014

You're invited to my first Solo Show of 2014
titled "8 Years Beyond the Studio, a Retrospective" to celebrate the 8
wonderful and hard working years that I have been a Resident Artist at
the Lake Lakeside Legacy Arts Park. I will be exhibiting
in the Sage Gallery and I have curated a show of stunning work by the
Board members of the Chicago Women's Caucus for Art titled "Fringes"
featuring the work of Judith Roth, Pauline Kochanski, Sandie Bacon,
Cynthia Vaicunas, Bert Leveille, Andrea Harris, Laura Cerf-Dahl, and
Dale Osterle. More information and images to come while I'm curating my own show.

About Me

Greetings and welcome. I want to share with you my lifelong passion for art, art education, art history and most of all painting. Visitors entering my studio will find paintings and mixed media works in various stages of progress. I am always thinking and writing about my work with a strong emphasis on connecting ideas and experiences of everyday life. My work is continuously nourished through interests and activly engaging in the world through exploring history, literature, music, worldwide travels, and the vastness of human creativity throughout time.
I hold a Bachelors of Art in Art Education from University of Florida and a Masters of Art in Art Education from University of Illinois and have continued my education throughout my life. As a professional artist and teacher, the best of both worlds come together in my art and my teaching.

"Portraits of American Veterans Project" 2011

The "Portraits of American Veterans Project" has exhibited regionally and nationally. This is the stunning Sage Gallery locate in the Lakeside Legacy Arts Park in Crystal Lake. The portraits require a large galllery and the Sage is perfect for showing each painting and each Veteran's story at their best. The "Portraits of American Veterans Project" has also exhibited at Northern Trust Bank in Chicago, GE Diversity Fine Art Gallery in Fairfield Conn. and other venues in the Chicago area.